Stout Heart FAQ: You’ve Been Wondering, We’re Answering

We get asked all kinds of questions. Where are you based? There are actually marketing agencies based in Portsmouth, New Hampshire? How many people work at Stout Heart? Do you build websites? Do you do branding? We thought we’d take a few minutes to answer some of the more common quandaries that we receive, starting with the most common one…

What does the name Stout Heart mean?

Stout-hearted is an old English expression used to describe someone who is courageous, or brave-hearted. You may have heard the adage “be of stout heart.” Stout-heartedness is a requisite part of being the kind of marketing agency and business that we aim to be. We say what we think (nicely!), we stand up for what we believe (both marketing and otherwise), and we operate with kindness (to one another, to clients, to random strangers on the street).

Being a stout-hearted marketing agency also means staying true to our values. We volunteer or discount our time working for nonprofit causes that we believe in. We make sure that we only accept clients whose values align with our own. Sometimes this even means turning a potential client away. This can mean making less money but that’s just part of who we’ve decided to be.

What makes you different?

The second layer of our name is really what sets us apart because it’s the kind of advertising agency we strive to be. It’s easy for marketing agencies to fall into the habit of saying yes to clients. Of course, we all want our clients to be happy. At Stout Heart, we love to please our clients, but more than that, we want to make their brands shine–and that can sometimes mean saying no. Our clients hire us for our expertise, and it would be a shame to deprive them of it because we feel the need to agree with them about everything! We’re the agency that will tell you if we think you’re missing the mark. Most of our clients appreciate that challenge!

What projects are you most proud of?

We’re extremely fortunate to honestly say that we have enjoyed all of the projects that we’ve encountered to date but here are some that immediately come to mind (we’re sure you’ve heard of a few)…

The Stout Heart office culture can be described as lively, if nothing else. At Stout Heart we truly do know how to put in the work but we genuinely enjoy doing it. This can be attested to by the fact that we are very particular about who we work with. Life is too short to work with difficult or mean people. In the office, you can always find something jammin’ on the Sonos and a serious discussion about where lunch will be had. Swing by anytime, we love visits!

We are a very flexible workplace. Our team has unlimited vacation and great benefits. We also have the option to work from home two days a week. Several of our team members work in the Portland, ME and Boston, MA areas, so this helps ease their commutes and makes all of our lives pretty pleasant. Our tacit motto is “don’t let the team down”. This means that trust, honesty, and integrity are incredibly important to our culture.

What are you most excited about in the coming year?

We have a number of things to be excited about this year, I know, I know, lucky us – but seriously, we do. For starters, we’ve outgrown our current space and will be moving into a space one could only dream about – stay tuned on that front (hint: we will look at two of the three bridges and summertime… well let’s just say we’ll have some great people-watching to do)! We are also excited for the evolution of Brave Brands. What is Brave Brands? It’s a platform for us to highlight and partner with brands out there that we think are doing incredible things for the world; locally, internationally, wherever! Check out our first ever Brave Brands post here. Being brave is a big part of what Stout Heart is all about. In addition to our new space, and expanding Brave Brands, we have some amazing new clients on our roster, so keep an eye on our social media for lots of great work. We always have something new to show!

Have a question you’d like to add to our list? Interested in chatting with someone from our team? Get in touch. We’d love to meet you.